Belonging Essay Example Skrzynecki Poems
Discuss how understanding nourishes belonging and lack of understanding prevents it.
Demonstrate how your your prescribed text and at least ONE other additional text.
The idea of belonging is an important and fundamental value in our lives. It can emerge from a better understanding of our experiences, relationships, family heritage, culture and place. All these factors play a role in discovering who we are, where we come from and where we belong in the world. On the other hand, a lack of understanding of our history or heritage can prvent belonging. In Peter Skrzynecki’s ‘Ancestors’ and ‘Felix Skrzynecki’ and Christine Anu’s rendition of ‘My Island Home’ we begin to get an idea of how important these notions of belonging are.
Instead of finding where Skrzynecki belongs in ‘Ancestors’ he finds that he is unfamiliar with his own heritage and a search for who he is and where he has come from arises. Skrzynecki’s search to belong causes unrest and stress, this is highlighted through ‘faceless men standing shoulder to shoulder’, the use of sibilance to emphasise those emotions of stress felt by the poet. Rhetorical questions are repeated throughout the poem, to cause a sense of confusion and frustration felt by the poet as he attempts to belong, but cannot. ‘To what star do their footprints lead?’ the star is symbolic of Skryzynecki’s ultimate goal to find a sense of belonging in his family so he may find where he belongs in the world.
Skrzynecki’s search for identity through family can also be seen in the poem ‘Felix Skrzynecki’. While Peter Skrzynecki made the journey from Poland to Australia with Felix he often feels that his stepfather’s sense of belonging was disconnected from his own. In the paean ‘Felix Skrzynecki’ the poet tells of the great devotion Felix had to his own garden by saying ‘He swept the paths 10 times around the world’. This quote uses metaphor and hyperbole to show that devotion that Felix had to his garden. His own small patch of
Demonstrate how your your prescribed text and at least ONE other additional text.
The idea of belonging is an important and fundamental value in our lives. It can emerge from a better understanding of our experiences, relationships, family heritage, culture and place. All these factors play a role in discovering who we are, where we come from and where we belong in the world. On the other hand, a lack of understanding of our history or heritage can prvent belonging. In Peter Skrzynecki’s ‘Ancestors’ and ‘Felix Skrzynecki’ and Christine Anu’s rendition of ‘My Island Home’ we begin to get an idea of how important these notions of belonging are.
Instead of finding where Skrzynecki belongs in ‘Ancestors’ he finds that he is unfamiliar with his own heritage and a search for who he is and where he has come from arises. Skrzynecki’s search to belong causes unrest and stress, this is highlighted through ‘faceless men standing shoulder to shoulder’, the use of sibilance to emphasise those emotions of stress felt by the poet. Rhetorical questions are repeated throughout the poem, to cause a sense of confusion and frustration felt by the poet as he attempts to belong, but cannot. ‘To what star do their footprints lead?’ the star is symbolic of Skryzynecki’s ultimate goal to find a sense of belonging in his family so he may find where he belongs in the world.
Skrzynecki’s search for identity through family can also be seen in the poem ‘Felix Skrzynecki’. While Peter Skrzynecki made the journey from Poland to Australia with Felix he often feels that his stepfather’s sense of belonging was disconnected from his own. In the paean ‘Felix Skrzynecki’ the poet tells of the great devotion Felix had to his own garden by saying ‘He swept the paths 10 times around the world’. This quote uses metaphor and hyperbole to show that devotion that Felix had to his garden. His own small patch of